Photo by AP Photo/Matt York
On Wednesday morning, Latino Rebels reported on an incident at the Mi Familia Vota’s office in Las Vegas, where local media and sources close to the situation said at least nine people resigned last week. In response, the organization sent Latino Rebels the following statement on Wednesday afternoon:
“Mi Familia Vota wants to clarify some inaccurate information in the media about some resignations in our Las Vegas office, which began recently when the National Office began an investigation into some of the practices by the former supervisors in this office. These two employees in question have promoted misinformation in the media and are behind this attack on our organization, the community, and the movement. However, because the investigation is ongoing, we cannot give specific details about it.
“On December 8th, there was an unfortunate incident by one of these supervisors. That day, as part of an official interview for the previously mentioned investigation, HR asked this person a series of questions. The employee became nervous and then resigned via email. Later, this employee returned and then became unruly and exhibited threatening behavior at the office. To protect the safety and well-being of those present, that person was told that the security from the office building would be called if they did not leave the premises. At no time did Mi Familia Vota threaten to, or call, law enforcement. We are an organization that promotes and protects immigrants.
“It is important to clarify that all the canvassers and phone bankers that were erroneously reported as part of a ‘mass resignation,’ were directly supervised by the employees under investigation who are making false accusations to the media. In fact, some of them have rescinded their resignation with HR after realizing that they were misled.
“Mi Familia Vota takes the situation in our Las Vegas office very seriously, and there is an ongoing investigation regarding the concerns from this office. Mi Familia Vota understands that we are only as strong as our team members that support our critical mission, and have offered all employees an exit interview so we can hear directly from them.
“Mi Familia Vota will continue our critical work in Nevada and beyond. We are proud of the organizing we have accomplished together in the state and are 100% confident that we will continue to serve the communities in Nevada successfully and with integrity.
“Mi Familia Vota believes that we cannot fight on behalf of our communities without supporting and uplifting our own staff. As a grassroots organization that has grown tremendously and quickly, we have been in an ongoing process of implementing internal structural changes, training our staff across the country on best practices, while not losing our spirit of service and mission. We have invested heavily in professional growth, providing coaches and ongoing professional development for the staff.
“As a nonprofit, we are constantly improving our employee benefits and have taken a very aggressive approach to providing great benefits for our team members, including a generous 5% non-matched employer 401K contribution, end of year bonuses, additional paid time off at the end of the year, and we have made salary adjustments and provided mental health support for our staff during the pandemic. We even guaranteed employment last year during the pandemic. We also extend this respect for temporary team members like canvassers and phone bankers, last year and this year they will also receive end of the year paid vacation.
“Mi Familia Vota has been growing with a strong focus on fighting the enemies of our community and democracy. In 2020 Mi Familia Vota launched the #BastaTrump campaign, the largest grassroots & field operation Latino grassroots effort in last year’s presidential cycle. We made 7.3 million voter contacts, 5.4 million phone calls, 3.6 million text messages, and 550,000 door knocks. We did it to fight the extremism and anti-immigrant hate coming from Donald Trump. We will continue to fight extremism and anti-immigrant hate every day.
“Mi Familia Vota has always strongly supported the Labor and immigrants rights movement. We are honored to be part of it. In fact, many of us have a strong Labor background and the vast majority of us are immigrants. We are proud that our organization is led by immigrants and women, and the majority of our board and state directors are female. We believe strongly in both our leadership and team members, who provide us invaluable insights, values and experience that are taken into account and embedded in our work.
“Mi Familia Vota continues to grow and will continue to fight for the rights of the Latino community. Our main focus is to protect our constitutional rights, to fight hate, xenophobia and extremism, and to make sure that every American —the immigrant, working families, women, LGBTQ+, and beyond— can participate in America’s greatest gift: our democracy.”
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Hector Luis Alamo is the Senior Editor at Latino Rebels and hosts the Latin[ish] podcast. Twitter: @HectorLuisAlamo
[…] nine workers resigned at Mi Familia Vota’s office in Las Vegas last week. Mi Familia has since released a statement in response to Latino Rebels report on Wednesday […]